The American Queen is still operating, but not a traditional steamboat as the wheel only provides about 30% of the propulsion--the rest coming from Z drives. The Mississippi Queen, which was a true almost ALL steam (even the Delta Queen used diesel generators for on-board electricity production) was sadly cut up for scrap. This was a travesty put on by Majestic America Lines to prevent it from ever being competition to anyone--they're the same company that let the Delta Queen's COI expire too. So the American Queen would be like 4449 with a diesel hidden in the tender doing most of the work. Yes, some steam, but not all steam, and definitely not all paddlewheel propulsion. So I will stick to my comparison that what if we only had two mainline steam engines in the whole country? And it's not like there are other boats "waiting in the wings" they are GONE.
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